I get the impression this team could lose 7 straight games and be below .500 and some here would still go with “we always improve under JB” and “it won’t be hard to make the tourney”. Bottom line is that some people are reluctant to accept what appears to be a reasonable prediction because of what we’ve accomplished in the past (how hypocritical is that). Eternal optimism is a good thing, but not always logical.
I never said it would be easy to go 11-7 or that I think it will happen anymore. I’m pointing out the idiocy of saying Michigan will miss the tournament if they did go 19-11 (11-7).
MattD, do you remember saying that you were dreading Michigan playing in Columbus last season? You were touting Ohio St. and drilling Michigan. How’d that go? You sure like to throw stones and love to pat yourself on the back, but I’ve yet to see you hold yourself accountable for being wrong.
Dreading playing OSU and a whole sale prediction are 2 different things, no? In any event, obviously the team turned out to be much better than I initially anticipated. To that extent I was wrong.
All that being said, I’m correct a hell of a lot more than I’m wrong. In the meantime, your predictions are looking very suspect at the moment. I understand your need to hold on to the ‘dreading’ OSU thing, its pretty much the only thing you have left at this point.
I get the impression this team could win 2 B10 Titles, a National Runner-up, and Elite 8 appearance and some here would still go thread to thread with pessimism about recruiting, defense, and a whole bunch of “I called it’s” under what they consider the guise of logic. Simply put, some here don’t buy what others are selling…so the sales pitch can end and move on.
The only thing I’m getting at here is that what happened in the past has no correlation to what happens this year or in the future. I understand past results are what foster the ‘benefit of the doubt’ approach, but that’s not my approach. I deal with each individual move, whether it be strategy or recruiting independent of past results, which is why I’m much more skeptical than others. I’ve never been one to say, ‘it happened in the past so it will happen again’. I think others could benefit from a more independent approach, but to each his own.
End of the day, so what we had 2 elite years, what the hell does that have to do with this year or the future when the impact players from those rosters are gone. So in my opinion, trying to sell the ‘glory days’ is a moot point, and knowledgable people know that
Im really starting to think Caris coming back may be a realistic possibility. He’s a good player no doubt, but I don’t necessarily look at him and see a first round pick to be honest. He definitely has some wholes in his game.
I don’t know Matt. He put his name in for evaluation last year. Draft Express recently moved him up to #13 in their last rankings. The drafts about potential not production, and Caris is going to be asked to do WAY to much this year in the absence of no other creators. Makes him look bad at times, and causes him to force things. P.S. Are there any doubters out there regarding our offensive production going forward now?
LeVert’s being forced to take a lot of tough shots that he’s having to create on his own. His midrange game still is hit or miss. He’s had games where he’s been great but too many games where he’s very inefficient. I think he’s a good player but if he’s your best player, I think you may be in a bit of trouble.
Irvin has not shown an ability to diversify his game. He never gets to the line, still doesn’t rebound and has 5 assists on the entire season. I think he can floor it for one or two dribbles but that’s about it.
What does everyone think of Walton this year? I think he’s been a bit of a disappointment. I think the hope was that he would take a big jump this year, but so far I haven’t seen it. I think we need a lot more out of him.
At this point, I would be happy if we can make the tournament. I would hope we will get a lot better as the season develops but just getting in the tournament is going to be a challenge.
I don't know Matt. He put his name in for evaluation last year. Draft Express recently moved him up to #13 in their last rankings. The drafts about potential not production, and Caris is going to be asked to do WAY to much this year in the absence of no other creators. Makes him look bad at times, and causes him to force things. P.S. Are there any doubters out there regarding our offensive production going forward now?
No doubt part of my thoughts are motivated by selfish reasoning (I’ve admitted this to you on prior occasions), but Caris has lots of trouble finishing and he can’t shoot off the bounce. That turnaround jumper isn’t going to work in the NBA, Kobe is the only player in the league that can consistently make that type of shot
Caris is much better off the ball in my opinion, but we don’t have that luxury on this team
Guys lets face it, as it stands today we have 1 good player, 2 above average players…and just a bunch of guys. This year doesn’t look all that promising, but I’m sure we will improve, but most likely not to the extent we would like. We will probably see most of our young guys improve next year, but I don’t see any of them making huge leaps, so hopefully Caris comes back. We just don’t have the necessary talent to compete at an elite level, and the coaching can’t compensate for it
My gosh…seriously…
We have a number of problems. Caris creates good looks for himself in his midrange game, but just doesn’t make the shots. I anticipated a big leap from both Zak and Derrick, and while we saw that in the early going, lately neither has been good, though at least Derrick has a toe injury as a small reason for his poor play.
The bigs are just a work in progress. The most problematic thing is that they can’t set good picks, which really hurts our offense. Losing Horford and McGary really hurts the team.
Chatman needs major improvement. He has talent, and will be very good in time, but he plays very loose with the ball and doesn’t use his length very well.
This was always going to be a tough game. Stanley Johnson is the best player on the floor, Hollis Jefferson is an NBA player, and Tarc and Ashley are three year guys who were elite recruits (and even York was a big recruit). Heck, from what I saw from Victor and Ristic, they would easily start for us.
Fortunately, that’s about the best team we’ll see all year, possibly by a large margin. They are a classic example of a team that has managed to retain elite recruits for awhile (Tarc, Ashley, Hollis Jefferson, York) while ours jump early. And McConnell is a great PG for that team - great floor general.
We need a win over SMU - a quality opponent. Get that, beat Coppin, and then get into Big Ten play and see what happens.
I still feel like this team can win 10-11 at least in the Big Ten.
I also agree that Caris may not be a first rounder right now. Borderline. He has to tighten up his handle - too many slips and and out of control dribbles today.
I’d like to say im optimistic this team can make drastic improvements, but I’d be fooling myself to say this team can win at least 10-11 games in the B10. 10-11 may be the absolute ceiling. I have a very hard time envisioning this team winning any road games outside of NW.
No bigs ( to inexperienced ) No depth, No defense, and No elite talent. If this team wins 10-11 games in the B1G I’ll be completely stunned. Even an “offensive genius” is made to look pedestrian with this roster. It is what it is and we will have to work extremely hard to get every W we can. You have to worry about their psyche now. That early benching of Irvin to start the second half was interesting. JB not pleased with his effort on D.
I think the most disturbing thing for me personally is that seemingly every team we play has a roster that runs faster, jumps higher, and is much stronger than our personnel. Shouldn’t be that way coming off a 2 year run that we just had…disappointing
You’re ignoring the fact that we’ve lost a ton of guys to the NBA and many of our guys are playing significant roles for the first time - and many of those guys are freshmen. So of course we’re going to look smaller and weaker than an Arizona. Look at their roster composition.
I love the overreactions though. I wish I had been here last year at this time to read the hyperbole. You gotta love “fans” that just shut it down at the first sign of adversity. Matt, let’s make a bet right now - I’ll take us to win at least one more Big Ten road game in addition to Northwestern. You want that action?
I think the most disturbing thing for me personally is that seemingly every team we play has a roster that runs faster, jumps higher, and is much stronger than our personnel. Shouldn't be that way coming off a 2 year run that we just had........disappointing
I disagree on the every team being faster, stronger thing. The only teams I saw so far that just look to have flat out better athletes are Nova and Arizona. Syracuse probably has more pure talent, but like us they are young.
Just far too much turnover in our roster. Our 2013 and 2014 rosters would have hang tough and probably played this game to 50/50 battle in the last two minutes. I now realize how spoiled we were with those teams. If we want to keep up, we have to start getting some of these top end recruits. We signed too many players that are program players and are developmental projects.
Those alley oop plays Arizona ran - we made teams look silly with GR3’s highlight reel dunks throughout his years.
I expected a lot more from Donnal. You cannot have a big man out there just handing off passes and taking bad fouls. Somehow Bilefeldt is taking the shots Donnal should be taking. He had that 3 late which he didn’t even hesitate.
The frustrating thing is we have actually had more overall success the last few years when compared to Arizona. We haven’t restocked our rosters with talent ready for go from Day 1.
No bigs ( to inexperienced ) No depth, No defense, and No elite talent. If this team wins 10-11 games in the B1G I'll be completely stunned. Even an "offensive genius" is made to look pedestrian with this roster. It is what it is and we will have to work extremely hard to get every W we can. You have to worry about their psyche now. That early benching of Irvin to start the second half was interesting. JB not pleased with his effort on D.
It will be tough to win games, but it won’t be like anything we faced today. There is no one in the Big Ten, even Wisconsin who I think is a notch below, that compares to Arizona.
The Big Ten simply isn’t that good. Finishing with 10 wins would mean we go 10-8 in conference. While that isn’t great by any stretch of the mind, I certainly think that is doable. We actually have a favorable schedule (no trips to Wisconsin, Nebraska, Minnesota, or Iowa).
Our best players have to play better, which I project they will.
Also, today is an example of why you need to win the gimme games and can’t lose those 2 we did. You can’t say that team played great defense and give them credit. You have to figure out a way to win even if its by one point.
A loss to Arizona was expected by everyone in the college basketball world. Even a bad loss wouldn’t mean much if we had been 8-1 like you should have been going into this game.
Because we lost the previous two, we have lost a lot of the goodwill and benefit of the doubt.
The next two games are absolute must wins and this team will need to get as many Big Ten wins as possible.